Most, if not everyone, loves music. Regardless of the genre, one song can have the power to lift you up or bring you down. For example, TV shows and movies use music to help keep their audience in the mood, even when the credits are rolling. It's safe to say that music has an effect on emotion, but just how profound is that effect? Can it go beyond emotion?
In order to answer these question, one area worth looking into is music therapy. According to the American Music Therapy Association (AMTA), music therapy programs can help people do things like manage stress, reduce anxiety, enhance memory and alleviate physical pain.
Music alleviating physical pain is something that I hadn't heard of before. The first thought that came to my mind was that a person with a broken leg could just listen to their favorite song and suddenly their leg is healed. Of course as I read about it, the whole idea became more and more realistic as compared to what I was thinking.
Music won't get rid of all the pain in an instant, but what it will do is greatly reduce it. A review in the 2015 issue of The Lancet (medical journal) found that patients who listened to music before, during, or after surgery experience less pain and anxiety. I can attest to that because I remember a few years ago, I had to get dental surgery. The dentist said that I could listen to music while they were working on me and I ended sleeping through the entire surgery.
Thanks Ed Sheeran!
Anyway, from personal experience, I do think that there is some validity to the idea that music can help to alleviate pain.
Music is also known as an alternative therapy for mood disorders like depression and bipolar disorder. According to an article from the Association of Natural Psychology, music can be a deeply emotional experience. When someone connects to a piece of music, the emotional experience resembles a flow of electricity. It goes from the singer, through the radio and/or headphones, and finally to the listener.
In other words, it's the feeling that makes you want to turn the radio up or skip a song. It's the feeling that makes you want to dance or feel at peace.
Let's go back to the two beginning questions: 1) How profound is the effect of music on human emotions? 2) Can it go beyond emotion? Well I that the whole idea of music therapy really demonstrates that music has on our emotions, our minds, and even our bodies. Which brings me to the second question, can it go beyond emotion? There have been studies that have proven that music can help reduce pain.
Which I think is really cool by the way.
Music has been another for a long time and its effects are only just being discovered. If it can do all that I mentioned in the article, then think about all of the secrets of music just wanting to be revealed.
